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ipedro

macrumors 603
Original poster
Nov 30, 2004
6,207
8,425
Toronto, ON
When I watched MacWorld this past January, I cringed at Phil Shiller's vastly inferior keynote performance. He just was no Steve Jobs. You could feel his nervousness, he spoke too fast, he often stumbled and he was definitely sweating bullets, making it obvious that he was eager to get through the keynote.

When Scott Forestall presented the iPhone OS 3.0 preview, I saw a glimmer of hope that Apple could continue post Steve.

Today, I must say Phil has been working at his speaking performance and I was actually quite engaged. He was articulate, made fewer if no mistakes and seemed much more at ease on the stage.

While Bertrand managed to convey enthusiasm about Snow Leopard, his very heavy French accent was an impediment to his presentation.

Craig Federighi, VP, Mac OS Engineering was also clear, enthusiastic and presented well.

The real star here was Scott. His presentation was clear, articulate, passionate and you could almost see a Steve twinkle in his eye. He even managed to recover rapidly from the audience's laughter and catcalls when AT&T was absent from initial MMS and tethering support.

This Keynote showed the world that there are more people hard at work behind the curtain. Steve Jobs is a masterful keynote speaker and his "Reality Distortion Field" is indeed powerful, but I think today Apple raised the confidence of its investors, developers and customers that Apple is strong and can continue once Steve Jobs inevitably leaves.

I'm personally hoping that's a long time from now. He's far from retirement age should he choose to continue at Apple and he can continue to steer Apple years ahead of the nearest competition with brilliant technology, gorgeous designs and intuitive user experience.

In the future, I'd like to see Steve return as the principal keynote speaker and face of Apple, but continue to share the stage with the people responsible for the various divisions within Apple Inc.

Phil, Bertrand, Craig and Scott. Take a bow. You deserved it today.
 

01jamcon

macrumors 6502a
Jul 24, 2006
511
0
London
Yer, Schiller and Forstall were good this time. But UK people may watch Betrand Serlet and chuckle, I personally can't get over his French Accent. There was a famous UK sitcom called 'Allo 'Allo in the 80's, and a British actor was famous for playing a french character with a very similar ott french accent. :D
 

Melrose

Suspended
Dec 12, 2007
7,806
399
I thought Serlet and Federighi did the best. Scott always has that way about his delivery, and Phil just seems kind of pitiful.. like he's not made for the limelight. For all his Steve Martin Pink Panther impersonating, you can tell Serlet's interested in and excited about what he does.

I thought all told they did a good job, and showed that Apple is a cohesive, well-run company without Steve Jobs in the center role. The Keynote beefed up my confidence that the company would be able to maintain it's vision if Steve were absent.
 

liptonlover

macrumors 6502a
Mar 13, 2008
989
0
Aside from being stuck with the failed demo, I thought Forestall was awesome. But the French guy... we were rolling on the floor it was hilarious. I want him again :apple:
 

rfrankl

macrumors 6502a
Apr 15, 2006
506
12
Scott is a natural...a future superstar. Phil was much improved. The French guy killed me every time he said "snow leopard".
 

CanadianMac2008

macrumors member
Apr 11, 2009
68
0
Aside from being stuck with the failed demo, I thought Forestall was awesome. But the French guy... we were rolling on the floor it was hilarious. I want him again :apple:

Yeah Bertrand was frigging hillarious (and I mean that in a compliment) with all his poking fun at Windows and I loved how much passion he showed for the Mac. Scott was great I think he's really improved recently and Schiller was definitely better although he's not Steve Jobs. I would like to see Joswiak up again he's really solid in my opinion :)
 

decksnap

macrumors 68040
Apr 11, 2003
3,075
84
Scott really toned down his Steve impersonation to the point where it sounds sincere. Much better.

Phil wins most improved though! I like that he is affable and giddy about stuff. Much less nervous sounding.
 

NT1440

macrumors G5
May 18, 2008
14,483
20,473
I thought that they were all great. I like Phil because he has flaws, he just seems like a big excited kid ready to go and sometimes gets overexcited.
 

CanadianMac2008

macrumors member
Apr 11, 2009
68
0
I thought that they were all great. I like Phil because he has flaws, he just seems like a big excited kid ready to go and sometimes gets overexcited.

Yeah you said what I couldn't find the words for. He's likeable in a big, excited kid kind of way :)
 

sushi

Moderator emeritus
Jul 19, 2002
15,639
3
キャンプスワ&#
I thought that they were all great. I like Phil because he has flaws, he just seems like a big excited kid ready to go and sometimes gets overexcited.
Well said.

He is fun to listen too. His excitement and enthusiasm for something he really believes in comes through! :)

He's likeable in a big, excited kid kind of way :)
Cliff Notes version. :D

It was fun to watch Bertrand Serlet's presentation -- especially describing Windows Vista/7. :)
 

CanadianMac2008

macrumors member
Apr 11, 2009
68
0
Haha I was impressed with how well they handled themselves when the demos didn't quite work and Scott's "Mr. Science" was too funny in an over the top cheesy way haha :)

oh and that girl demoing star defense was so over the top, like REALLY over the top. Pretty entertaining though heh :p
 

MacBH928

macrumors G3
May 17, 2008
8,275
3,696
Actually I am glad for the presenters , they are all really good and if you have ever seen another companies' keynotes you will notice how scared and uneasy they are with very bad presentations(like E3).

I think this type of clear presentation is setup by Steve Jobs, I mean he is the only one who did speak and act in that form during presentations. I think he is credited for making keynotes a popular thing. All the presenters today at Apple are in his footsteps and you can notice an exact rhythm of presenting the material , word selection, and even surprise factor to get that "WOW" out of the crowd.

Maybe a year ago people couldn't imagine a keynote without Steve Jobs, actually I do not think they could imagine the existence of a successful Apple in the same quality path with out Jobs. I mean Phil was no more than a guy that pops on Steve's iChat window to present a new feature, and now he is the main guy. I think it is very smart how Apple steered this whole thing and presented more people behind Apple to take the lead and get them acquainted with the public.

Sorry to say that it seems that more and more people stopped caring for Steve Jobs like he never was, he is hardly the head line of news any more. I mean this guy used to get sick and the stock would go down. I think a lot of people thought he was the guy behind all the magic in Apple. Now he is gone but the magic is still there. I think deep down people are thinking that maybe they gave him more credit than he deserve, and it was the hard work of all these employees at Apple and not his.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the guy for making us see that technology should be here to serve us and make things easier not for us to learn it and and serve it and for making technology a beautiful experience. I am just commenting on what I see of the general public.
 

jaw04005

macrumors 601
Aug 19, 2003
4,513
401
AR
Phil always come off as a nice guy. I like that about him. You wouldn't know he was Apple's marketing chief by the way he talks. By the way, most of the Mac press has praised Schiller for his "down to earth" attitude in interviews.

Bertrand did an excellent job on his Mac presentation. He was clearer this time. I know in the past I had a hard time understanding him. I liked his pacing, and the fact he left the demos up to Federighi. I get that part of his job at WWDC is to fire up the base, but the Microsoft bashing is old. He could have fit two or three more Snow Leopard features in the time he took to rag on Windows 7.

Scott was OK. I think he needs to rethink his keynote strategy. He basically rehashed the entire March iPhone special event when discussing the same previously announced features of 3.0. Also, it's time to let up on the App developer demos. We know developers are enthusiastic about the iPhone platform, we don't need a parade of App demos that take up 45 minutes of the keynote to reaffirm that. Select a few choice developers, and let them demo. Then, move on. He should also be careful not to appear like he's heard whatever each developer's said before. He came back on stage a few times with a Déjà vu look.

All in all, I thought all the presenters did a excellent job filling Jobs' shoes. As much as I love that Steve Jobs takes the time to learn the new features of whatever software Apple is releasing. It's good to share the stage with other Apple employees.
 

iGary

Guest
May 26, 2004
19,580
7
Randy's House
I love Bertrand; he's like a mad scientist.

Forstall kind of gets on my nerves, but does a good job presenting.

Can't stand Phil Schiller, just not a smooth presenter.

No one beats teh Steve™. :cool:
 

CanadianMac2008

macrumors member
Apr 11, 2009
68
0
Yeah agreed with Forstall. I like him and he's much improved but he did seem to just rehash the March presentation, though that may not have been his choice, I dunno. Also, agreed with the demos. Some were great, particularly the Zip car one (SWEET!) but they could have left a bunch out. And while the diabetes is great and all, it's pretty boring. I think the fact that they presented in March was good but that should be it. It would be nice to have them "spread developers out" so to speak between keynotes. No overlap and fewer companies at each please.
 

Aluminum

macrumors newbie
Jun 2, 2009
19
3
Earth
Craig and Bertrand shone out to me, because of the enthusiasm and presentation style that is as smooth as summer cherries (french ones in Bertrand's case)

But, Scott's performance is no Jobs. There's points about Scott - his clasping of hands, which reminds me of Mr Burns; a lack of rhetorical questioning; and as mentioned before, his "Déjà vu look".
 
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